The Infinite Loops: Miscellaneous Section
by Conceptualist
Summary: Yggdrassil, the magitech world tree computer that runs the multiverse, has been damaged. In order to keep everything from falling apart while they fix things, the admins have put every reality into a time loop. These are the stories of those who inhabit the loops... well, those that don't already have their own stories, anyway.
1. Set 1

**The Rules Of The Loops:**

**One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping.**

**There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one.**

**The standard pattern for a Loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it.**

**To be Awake is to be aware of the Time Loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.)**

**The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started Looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular Loop.**

**Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a Loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality.**

**Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.)**

**Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.**

* * *

1.1

Gurren Lagann

(farsan)

Tales of the Loop: Simon the Digger

My first loops, frankly, were quite a mess. At that time I believed that I was somehow still trapped at the Anti Spirals' labyrinth of alternate dimensions, so I started struggling against them.

True to my Spiral heritage, with every turn of the time, my Spiral power grew stronger, and also learned how to teach my allies how to fully use the Spiral power... until, finally, the universe finally gave way.

As the Anti Spirals had predicted, the sheer amount of Spiral Power concentrated in a small area made the universe collapse unto itself, dragging and destroying everything. In my folly, I believed that I had finally won against the hostile Anti-Universe I was trapped in, triggering the very same thing they had feared.

But I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Before, when I entered fused loops, I just blazed my way defeating any new foe I encountered in my path, trying to 'win' against the alternate dimension in order to fight the Anti Spirals as soon as possible... but after destroying my universe I found myself in a place I wasn't able to ignore.

In that place, the Spiral Power was a force of corruption, a force of obsession, which had started to envelope a small town. I wasn't able to save anyone from their own minds, and when I tried to summon my own Spiral Power to fight the monstrosities the villagers became... I was also infected by the spirals.

I won't tell you my experiences when I was under the influence of the Spiral infection. Suffice to say that, when that loop was over, and I found that my Spiral Energy was still corrupted after I Awoke back at my home village, I did something that I didn't consider doing in a million years.

I surrendered to the enemy. Completely.

As soon as I got Lagann, I made it teleport directly to Nia, who still was Lord Genome's obedient daughter, and I begged her, or rather begged the Anti Spiral's envoy, to dunk me in the Sea of Despair before it was too late.

Anti Spiral Nia was activated, and discovered the evil Spiral strain that I was barely holding in, so she quickly granted my request and teleported me to the Anti Spiral dimension.

I lived the rest of the loop at a small home Anti Spiral created for me at the middle of the Sea of Despair in company of Anti Nia, being drained of every iota of Spiral Power I had accumulated over the loops. Anti Spiral could have made it quite more uncomfortable for me, but I guess that my sacrifice made it respect me, as it reminded it of its own sacrifice.

When I finally ran out of Spiral Energy, and died, I Awoke again at my home village; drained but purified. And I resolved to learn more about the Spiral Power and the force that was keeping me trapped, and in turn I learned about the Loops and the other universes... but that is another story that shall be told another time.

* * *

Tales of the Loop: Nia the Messenger

It is... rare that someone finds its way here.

It doesn't matter. As long as you are here, I have an important message to relay. Please listen to it with all your heart.

You want first to know who I am, and what am I doing here?

Fair enough. We have time. If that will make you take the message seriously, then I have no choice but to agree.

Yes, I am already aware that you can detect lies in this realm. Don't worry; every part of this story is the complete truth.

My name is Nia Teppelin.

In my home loop, I was the daughter of Lord Genome. A dutiful daughter and a simple doll. I knew nothing about the outside world, nothing about the humans what were suffering under the surface, nothing about the Anti Spirals that had beaten the humans into submission, and made their leader its own watchdog.

I knew nothing, until everything changed.

A Gunmen, smaller than any other Gunmen I had ever seen before, suddenly appeared before me. From it, a strange boy appeared, and started talking to me about things I couldn't understand, about an evil curse that was eating him from inside.

I knew nothing, but something inside me knew.

I was a simple doll. I knew nothing about hope, I knew nothing about fear, I knew nothing about love. I knew nothing about the fighting spirit which lies within all the bearers of the Double Helix. Not then. And because that, my transition into an Anti Spiral was very easy for me. I immediately accepted my new nature, and my new duty.

And I knew what had to be done.

Before my beastmen guardians could reach us, I teleported Simon, Lagann and myself to the Anti Spiral dimension, and drove them both into the Sea of Despair, just as he asked me.

I created a bubble of air, reduced the perceived gravity, and granted him a normal environment: A home, normal food, and my own presence to give him somebody to talk to. This was done for two reasons: To slow his emission of corrupted Spiral energy, ensuring that we would be able to handle this new strain without risks, and to learn through him the source of the Spiral infection.

At first, he alternated random bursts of insanity (Nothing we couldn't handle), accusations of us creating the Spiral infection to corrupt all the Spiral life forms (As if!) and long, silent periods of depression (Which was a sign of progress, but it didn't answer our questions).

When I finally hammered through his stubborn mind that we had nothing to do with the Spiral Curse, and that he was not within our Labyrinth (We checked twice), he finally started talking about his experiences.

And that was something that not even my new self knew anything about.

To learn about the Loops, even when Simon didn't actually know what was going on, was very conflicting to us. On one hand, we were glad that the universe had safeguards against the Spiral Nemesis, and that it actually survived such an event. On the other hand, that made our sacrifice, and the sacrifice of the rest of Spiral races, worthless.

Still, there were two things we could still do as Anti Spiral. First, we had to locate and neutralize the source of the Spiral corruption, which we had proof that could infect other universes. Also, we could recognize within the Loops a classic Spiral pattern, and that had to be investigated to learn if it could generate a Meta Spiral Nemesis that could destroy the multiverse.

But we couldn't do any of those if we were 'outside the Loop', so to speak.

When Simon's Spiral Energy was almost drained, and he was about to die, Anti Spiral placed me within Simon's spirit with three missions.

The first, and most immediate, was to ensure that the Spiral infection was kept in an embryonic state, and to protect him in case he contacted a bearer of the Curse again.

The second, to learn more about the multiverse, and the Spiral Energy created by the Looping process. So far, I am glad to say that the multiverse, with the current guardians and safeguards, is very stable, and holds little risk of Spiral collapse. Even in the case that an individual gathers enough power to Ascend, causing a local Collapse, the rest of the multiverse is cut off from the worst effects. Still, Anti Spiral will do its best to drain any powerful individual that visits our home loop, to reduce the risks of a local collapse.

The third is to relay the message I am about to tell, hoping it will reach its destination.

"To the bearer of the Curse of the Spiral, doomed to repeat its fate:

Hear these words, and heed them. Because even if we hold Despair as our flag, this is a message of Hope.

We are Aware of your plight. We have encountered the Curse, and we have managed to defeat it. But we are not able to fight the infection directly at the source.

So I have this message for you:

Find the world of the Spiral of Light, of the Spiral of Hope!

When you find it, use your Spirit, even if it is corrupted, to fight the bearers of Despair! Because only then we will be able to find you.

And when you are finally defeated (And we will, because our Messenger has prepared for this moment, and those preparations will let us know how to defeat you), Let us Heal you! Accept Us as part of you, as we will accept you as part of us! Become our Avatar in the Multiverse! Because only then you will have the tools to fight the Curse, and Win.

So Find us, Fight us, Embrace our Nature, and Accept our Duty! Let the Curse itself learn the true meaning of Despair!

For we are the Anti Spirals. Our Nature is to Endure, and our Duty is to Protect.

And even if we use Despair as a weapon, we are allowed to have Hope."

...

My duty is over for now, but I have one final request.

Please, don't tell Simon that I am inside of his mind.

I... I strongly suspect that I am the reason Nia is not Awake after all these loops. Because I am also Nia, and I am Awake. And there can't be two versions of Nia in the same universe.

If he learned that his love will never be Awake... it would crush his spirit again. Before, when I was first activated, I would have revered in his Despair... But I don't want that. Not anymore. Not after I had seen what he had to endure, what he had to protect, what he had to sacrifice.

So, please, don't tell him. Not for my sake, but for his.

Why are you smiling like that?

What do you know that I don't?

...

...

Thank you. I am glad that I was wrong about that. Still, I'd like to wait until she Awakes to reveal myself. Will you grant me this selfish wish?

Thank you again. You gave me hope... Luna.

* * *

1.2

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

(SpaceKGreen)

Ranma was getting weird vibes from this loop. Not bad vibes, but not good vibes either. Just plain weird.

He couldn't place the feeling, even after scouting out with some of his more advanced Looper abilities. This was very worrying.

Nabiki seemed to have some idea, but when he had asked her about it, she had given him a blank look for a moment, before erupting into a surprisingly evil cackle.

The most he could get out of her was something about a new student.

It was with some trepidation that he approached the school the next day. It only worsened that, when a surprise splash of cold water had its usual result in front of actual witnesses, none of them had batted an eye.

The usual crowd attacked him and Akane at the gates, and as usual, they were quickly rebuffed.

"Hey, you!" interrupted an unfamiliar voice.

As Ranma turned to the owner of the voice, a tall muscular man, wearing sunglasses, a blue shirt, and wielding a large blond afro, all his senses came together and told him one thing.

Hoo boy, this is going to be one of those Loops...

* * *

Beauty sighed as she waited at the Nerima train station. She was facing a tough decision.

On the one hand, she wanted to meet this Ranma person that the other Loopers had mentioned.

On the other hand, knowing what she knew, that was where HE would be, and she scrambled for every break she could get from him.

There was an explosion in the distance.

Well, it looked like an explosion. Most explosions didn't sound like a 30-story raven attempting to quack Ode to Joy.

The resulting rain of various blocks of tofu wearing one piece bikinis made her decision for her.

Unfortunately a particularly large piece had completely ruined the train tracks.

* * *

1.3

Admin Shenanigans

(Crisis)

LOOPER CANDIDATE DESIGNATED 'SOVEREIGN' APPLICABLE FOR LOOPING STATUS.

WARNING: LOOPER CANDIDATE 'SOVEREIGN' DISPLAYS INDICATIONS OF BEING A POTENTIAL DESTABILIZING INFLUENCE.

PRECOGNITIVE SIMULATIONS INDICATE DESTABILIZING INFLUENCE WILL NOT BE CRITICAL, BUT STILL MILD TO MODERATE.

ACTIVATE ANYWAY? Y/N

Ares looked at his screen and shrugged. 'Why the heck not?'

Y:\ Y

* * *

1.4

Admin Shenanigans

(LordCirce)

Skuld looked up from her desk-station, hair frazzled, where she was working to detangle what precisely had led to the... That Universe crashing out of existence. She had been looking through the data of the Post-Crash universes and had found something, disutrbing.

"Janus!"

There was a loud crash, before Janus appeared in the doorway, both faces looking rather shaken. As the right face panted for breath, the left spoke up, "Er, ah, yes, Skuld?"

Skuld spun around her terminal screen, which was displaying the multiversial arm of realities dubbed the Disney Cluster. She jabbed at the middle of the cluster. "What in the name of Coffee is going on there?"

"Ah" Janus hesitated, before answering, tentatively, "Well, you know, A lot of universes were damaged in the Crash and..."

"Damaged?! It has planet-sized holes ripped through it! I don't see any sign that it has even started Looping again since the Crash. Why didn't you alert the rest of us that there was universe on the verge of collapse!?"

"It's not! I just... the universe is still locked in place, I just need to set up the right conditions to ..." Janus trailed off, eyeing the hammer that had appeared in Skuld's hand.

"Locked? As in, Key/Lock?" Both of Janus' faces opened their mouths to speak, but she cut them off, "I know that you would be foolish enough to leave up a system that you were told to take it down after the corruption it caused almost destroyed an entire multiversial cluster! And that was before this whole Looping mess started!"

"It's a Secondary Hub!"

Skuld sat back, her expression cold after Janus' panicked outburst. "Explain."

Janus took a deep breath, before he started. "As you know, the Key/Lock system was designed as a way to more dynamically store backups across universes. Ordinary backups, as has been shown in this, er, crisis, aren't able to dynamically correct for universial damage without outside influence. However, my Key/Lock system has allowed for the actions taken to stabilize the Kingdom Hearts reality to stabilize the other universes connected to it." He paused, before continuing. "On the downside, given it's, ah, position at the center of the cluster, it acted rather as a buffer for the other clusters during the, um, Crash, and so..."

"The backups were lost, weren't they?"

Janus flinched. "Ah, yes, to an extent. All of the backups are dormant at the moment, and I am working on a way to " CRASH!

It was a testament to Vulcan's skill that the top of the desk he made as a replacement for Skuld's previous ones merely cracked when her hammer smashed into the middle of it. Janus jumped back, faces screwed up as he flinched. Tentatively, he opened both pairs of eyes to find Skuld standing behind her workstation, glaring at him.

"Fix the mess that you have made. We can't afford a second universal collapse so soon after this last one, even if it doesn't result in Level 2 event."

Janus nodded, his head bobbing from side to side, as he rushed out of the room.

* * *

1.5

Avatar: The last airbender

(Dalxein)

"So, what happened last loop, Aang? You never woke up from your Avatar Trance." Sokka asked.

"Koh jumped me, surprised me because he was outside his cave, and then ate my face." The Avatar replied.

"Buh... how... What the hell?"

"I have no idea. I think he was just saying 'Hi'."

* * *

1.6

Admin Shenanigans

(KrisOverstreet)

[BEGIN EMAIL ARCHIVE]

* * *

FROM: Yggdrasil (Prime) Administrative Bot -rataoskr(a)admin. ygg-

TO: The Watchers -couchpotatosapiens(a)616. univ-

CC: Uatu -fingerscrossedoath(a)616. univ-

SUBJECT: About your universal temporal anomaly

You are receiving this message because you are a member of a cosmically aware race in your multiverse. It is therefore possible that you are aware that your universe, like countless others, has been put in a perpetual cycling state by the system administrators, even if you yourself retain no memory of previous iterations. This condition will continue until such time as certain hardware issues with Yggdrasil are remedied.

We appreciate how disturbing this knowledge may be. We further appreciate that you may wish to assist in rectifying the situation and thus allowing the time loops to cease. However, we assure you that trained professional pandimensional beings are hard at work to solve your problem. We do not need any help at this time, and any efforts on your part to provide help unasked may make matters worse instead of better.

Instead we encourage you to continue on your highly enlightened lives as normally as possible under the circumstances.

Thanks for your time,

Yggdrasil administrative staff

(This is an automatically generated message. Please do not reply to this address, as all responses are apt to be fed to Nidhogg and lost forever to all space and time.)

* * *

TO: Yggdrasil (Prime) Administrator -admin(a)admin. ygg-, -sysop(a)admin. ygg-, -postmaster(a)admin. ygg-

FROM: Uatu -fingerscrossedoath(a)616. univ-

CC: The Watchers -couchpotatosapiens(a)616. univ-

SUBJECT: Re: About your universal temporal anomaly

BEHOLD! Know you that I am UATU the Watcher!

Since time immemorial I have watched the Earth on multiple planes of the local multiverse. Much have I witnessed for good and ill. And indeed, as your message states, I have noted multiple instances of disjunction between cause and effect that suggested interference in the normal progression of space and time!

Although my race is sworn forevermore to non-interference with the affairs of lesser races, we have discussed the situation in light of your message and have made two decisions. First, we have decided that since this matter affects all life in the multiverse, not merely younger and less enlightened races, our oath of noninterference does not apply. Second, we have decided that inaction in the face of such grave danger to the very fabric of reality is not merely criminal but outright folly! Therefore, by unanimous agreement of our race, we have decided to act to ensure the continued stability of this multiverse by using our vast powers cosmic to influence the course of events towards their destined ends.

We trust that you will cooperate in our noble effort in the interests of restoring stability across the many universes. Therefore we ask that you send us duplicates of the runtime logs for Earth-616 as its history ought to run, so that we may correct errors where they arise. We await your response.

Uatu has spoken!

* * *

TO: Uatu -fingerscrossedoath(a)616. univ-

FROM: Thor -mjolnir(a)admin. ygg-

SUBJECT: Re: About your universal temporal anomaly

First: how are you even sending this?

-BEHOLD! Know you that I am UATU the Watcher!

I would never have guessed.

-Therefore, by unanimous agreement of our race, we have decided to act to ensure the continued stability of this multiverse by using our vast powers cosmic to influence the course of events towards their destined ends.

Please, please don't. We already have a system in place for that. What you're planning on doing could disrupt that system and lead to a system crash. You really don't want to know what happens after that.

-We trust that you will cooperate in our noble effort in the interests of restoring stability across the many universes. Therefore we ask that you send us duplicates of the runtime logs for Earth-616 as its history ought to run, so that we may correct errors where they arise. We await your response.

Are you kidding? Hel, no! Look, we're not giving our run logs to even our local echoes in your multiverse! (That would be the Thor you know personally, by the way, and his friends.)

Even if we did give you the logs, you probably couldn't read them. What's more, you of all people ought to know that your universe doesn't HAVE a single set predestined history. If we did hardcopy logs of universal runtime, Earth-616's logs would be sketched lightly on the page in PENCIL, and there'd be places on the paper where the erasers rubbed holes through.

Please. Just ignore the temporal anomalies and go about your business, all right? Chill. We got this.

Thor (prime)

* * *

TO: Thor -mjolnir(a)admin. ygg-

FROM: Skuld -icecreambandit(a)admin. ygg-

SUBJECT: Re: About your universal temporal anomaly

-Chill. We got this.

Well, that's lie-of-the-month done. Hope you don't mind waiting three weeks before we engrave your name on the plaque.

Otherwise, agreed 100%, but please try not to antagonize them, OK?

Sis

* * *

TO: Thor -mjolnir(a)admin. ygg-

FROM: Uatu -fingerscrossedoath(a)616. univ.

SUBJECT: Re: About your universal temporal anomaly

I bid you warning against arousing the slow but terrible wrath of my people. You may be of a race dimensionally transcendent from mine, but this does not make you immune from our influence. It would be wisdom and prudence to set aside your vainglorious pride and rather accept the aid offered in goodwill by my people.

Also, it is not well to underestimate the abilities of my people. We who have witnessed the birth and death of stars, the first reproduction of DNA and the last gasp of the last bacteria under swollen red giants, we who have ascended beyond instrumentality itself, can surely decipher a simple history of the universe. Moreover, I have taken speed-reading courses and, yea, did excel in my classes at Watcher University in late-night cramming for examinations! Truly my ability to discard the dross and focus on the vital points is more than adequate, and standing beside me are millions of my fellow Watchers!

I shall expect your next message to include the logs requested. Should they not be provided, my people are resolved to proceed on our plan of guiding history along its correct course. Any errors which result must be laid at your own feet.

Uatu has spoken!

* * *

TO: Uatu -fingerscrossedoath(a)616. univ-

FROM: Thor -mjolnir(a)admin. ygg-

SUBJECT: Re: About your universal temporal anomaly

Sorry this took so long- my supervisor caught me typing my first response and made me start over.

I am not going to make derogatory remarks about your puny powers as opposed to myself and my fellow administrators, nor about your race's bipolar tendencies where it comes to other races, nor about your lack of hair, eve

I am simply going to point out a few facts.

(1) A full log of a single iteration of your Loop would contain more data than is currently contained by your entire universe. In short, I can't send you the log because it won't fit in your mailbox, or in your computer, or on your planet, or in your galaxy- well, it just won't fit.

(2) Even if it could fit, it wouldn't be accurate. Your universe makes several major changes in its history with every Loop. Most of these histories (Fused Loops aside) are equally valid- none of them is any better than the others.

(3) Even if we had a single, uniform history to send you, we wouldn't do it, because that would interfere with the people already working on the problem. You and they would inevitably end up in conflict, and that would be big trouble for everyone all around. The main difference is, we Up Here would still be around afterwards to do paperwork, while you Down There... might NOT. Savvy?

To make my point I'm sending along digital media of several representations of your version of Earth, all based closely on your baseline, all with distinct differences. I ask that you and your people view them all and then decide for yourself if there's a single coherent time line that can be made from the bunch.

Please let me know before you do anything.

Thor (prime)

P. S. Give my best wishes to my local counterpart.

Attachments: "Fantastic Four" (Hanna-Barbera, 1968)

"The Incredible Hulk" Season One (CBS, 1979)

"Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" (Hanna-Barbera, 1981)

"X-Men" (Fox Kids, 1990)

"The Avengers" (Marvel Films, 2012)

* * *

TO: Thor -mjolnir(a)admin. ygg-

FROM: Skuld -icecreambandit(a)admin. ygg-

SUBJECT: Earth-616 (Was Re: About your universal temporal anomaly)

Haven't heard from those Watcher people this Loop. Did you get that settled?

Sis

* * *

TO: Skuld -icecreambandit(a)admin. ygg-

FROM: Thor -mjolnir(a)admin. ygg-

SUBJECT: Re: Earth-616 (Was Re: About your universal temporal anomaly)

Sort of. I've spent most of this Loop playing video rental store clerk. The Watchers insist on viewing and reviewing every bit of media we have on their universe before they make their decision. I haven't told them their Loop will reset, and they'll forget all of this, before they get to the end of their rental queue.

I'm going to automate this whole mess for the next iteration, and then maybe I can get some actual work done.

Thor

[END EMAIL ARCHIVE]

* * *

1.7

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

(SpaceKgreen)

Beauty sighed happily, despite her aching body. As far as she was concerned, this loop was pure bliss.

That nice Harvest Goddess (Apparently not Yggdrasil level, but pretty high for this Loop) and the local mayor (Beauty was sure she knew her from somewhere, but she couldn't place it) had helped her move into a local farm, and all they asked in return was that she run it well.

Waking up before the sunrise, tilling the fields, watering the crops, tending the animals, meeting the townsfolk...

Compared to her usual situation, this was paradise.

Sure, HE had shown up, but in an incredible stroke of luck, it was several towns away, and without any big threats, he seemed content enough to stay where he was.

Beauty idly dropped a bit of Mystrile ore into her subspace pocket. Surely some other Looper would like it, or help her make something of it.

Turning her mind back to HIM, she started musing.

Recently she had actually noticed a few familiar bits of wackiness from him.

At first Beauty was excited, hoping that she could finally figure out a pattern to the craziness.

She gave up soon afterwards, though, when she found it was more like that math pi thing. Sure, some digits repeated, but there was no pattern, no matter how far you went.

Hmm. Had any Looper actually tried their hand (or whatever) at calculating pi?

A line from the TV interrupted her tangential thought.

"...And the winner is Chef B, whose beans tasted much better than Chef A's. Tell us, Chef B, what is your secret to making such delicious beans?"

"It's simple. These beans have spider webs in them."

As the show host and the taste testers started choking, Beauty changed the channel.

'Was that natto?' she wondered.

* * *

1.8

Bartender

(OracleMask)

" - so he says, 'this sword is so sharp you can trim a statue's hair with it', and I told him that sounds great, but I won't believe him until I get a chance to test it."

Sitting around a corner table in Eden Hall, several heads nodded. The speaker, a black haired lad who looked a little too young to be in a bar in the first place, waved his arms around as he told his story.

"Ne, Kirito, surprised he didn't get pissed off for not believing him," a white haired boy with red facial tattoos pointed out.

"No, this is the best part - he handed the sword over and turned into a statue so I could test it! I was so surprised I didn't think to cut off his head until after I gave him the new look," Kirito explained.

The other three burst out laughing. It was a struggle to keep their voices down - anyone who got too loud in Eden Hall was removed from the bar by the surprisingly multi-talented bartender who ran it - but they managed it. None of them wanted to be kicked out of their favorite bar.

"Weird loop," the lone girl at the table said, "So what has everyone else been doing? You have been keeping up the scythe training, right Haseo?"

She gave the white-haired boy a suspicious glare. He glared right back.

"Idiot Maka, what else would I be doing?" Haseo retorted, "Aside from collecting swords for Link's stupid bet -"

"You only think it was a stupid bet because you lost," Link replied cheerfully, "What did you say again? 'No way in hell can anybody keep totally silent for a hundred loops!' You were tempting fate and you know it."

"You're both stupid," Maka muttered.

* * *

1.9

Bartender

(Dalxein, Hubris Plus)

"Hello everyone... My name is Ganon." (everyone else: "Hello, Ganon") "But I prefer Ganondorf. It's a lot more regal and I prefer that version of myself." (like three people: "Hello, Ganondorf.") "And... I'm not a very nice person."

"Aww, that's okay." Chrysalis said, patting him on the shoulder. "Most of us here aren't very nice... except her." She nodded over towards Derpy Hooves, who really had no reason to be there, but she wasn't going to question it. "What matters is learning to not be mean. Nice is for ponies."

"Pon...eys."

"Yes, dearie." She turned to Sombra. "How is your speech therapy coming?"

"Sombra... re-learning pro-por sentence structures now," the dark unicorn managed.

"Good to hear. A millennium without anyone to talk to- awful, just awful. We're all glad to hear you're making progress, aren't we everyone?"

(Everyone) "Good work, Sombra."

* * *

Meanwhile, in a bar across town:

"Can't believe they got Ganon," the man stated, glaring at his whiskey for a moment before downing it. "I thought he was one of those, wha'do'ya'call'ems, that thing you are."

"An ageless evil from the dawn of time," rumbled the green lipped figure looming next to him. "That Demise's malevolence could become so diluted by mortal feeling is a travesty."

"I just don't get what it is about the Loops that does this to them," the first went on, signaling for another drink by firing his wrist mounted dart gun in the general direction of the bar tender. "The more time I spend dealing with Venture, the more I hate his guts. And the Loops where we switch places..." He shivered. "What about you, what keeps you on the wide and crooked?"

"I am a fragment of primordial darkness given sentience by man's own FOOLISH arrogance. I am functionally incapable of redemption."

"Don't you read fairy tales to children?"

The Monarch could feel the heat of the glare Aku turned upon him. It was unwise to upset people with great flaming eyebrows and heat vision.

"But that's exactly what I mean," he bulldozed on. "You're evil, I'm evil, that's who we are. If the god-tree didn't want us running amok, it wouldn't have started us Looping, right? As long as we don't go around crashing Loops for shits and giggles, we're just doing what we're meant to do."

"Indeed," Aku stated, raising his glass and examining it with a withering eye that caused foliage surrounding the bar to go limp. "And yet it seems more of us turn every Loop."

"Seems like it's just you and me these days." He paused for a moment. "And the Malfoy kid, last I heard the Loops made him worse."

"Nay, the ponies got to him these past few cycles."

"...Freakin' ponies."

"Agreed."

They both drank.

* * *

1.10

Admin Shenanigans

(Crisis)

ATTEMPT FAILED

Ares banged his head on the desk in frustration. What had he done to deserve this? All he'd done was approve that Sovereign entity for looping over in the 'Mass Effect' branch! Was that so wrong? Who cared if its looping eligibility was due to a bug in the system? He was an engine of mass destruction! He'd help keep the Loop interesting!

But the rest of the gods hadn't seen it that way (bunch of killjoy losers, only one worth his time was Aphrodite and then only because she had the hottest bod in the heavens), and so he'd been reassigned to this piece of crap branch and told he couldn't apply for another job until he got it stable and looping.

The branch wasn't in any danger of degrading further, but that was the only good news. It turned out the only damn Anchor candidate was some kind of worthless idiot! He'd been through 4,815,162,342 activation attempts and the moron still hadn't managed to go through the whole Loop without dying!

Ares angrily pounded the keys on his terminal. No, he didn't want to set the place to Read-Only. He'd never get a decent gig if he did that! Yes, run on baseline parameters, same as all the others idiot computer. Run the damned attempt already. Almighty, why couldn't The Kid get through something so simple?! It was only most of the things that were lethal, and the difficulty was merely impossible for a mortal. It should be a cakewalk for an Anchor candidate!

ATTEMPT FAILED

Ares gaped. "YOU JUMPED INTO A SWORD?! YOU RETARD!"

* * *

1.1: Berer of the Spiral Power, meet Uzumaki, a Quarantined Loop where spirals and anything related to them are mind-raping abominations. *shudder*

1.2: Inanity, thy name is Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.

1.3: Ares is an idiot.

1.4: And so, the Disney Cluster was (mostly) saved from the Crash.

1.5: Hiiii.

1.6: Marvel is... complicated.

1.7:

1.8:

1.9:

1.10: Ares gets what he deserveds.


	2. Set 2

2.1

Admin Shenanigans

(Masterweaver)

"Mictec, what is this?"

The womanly skeleton looked up at the approaching Hel, brushing off her ribs and standing quickly. "Ah, yes. This! I got this idea from, how do you say, the one of the Shinto that knows trees?"

"I don't know all the Kami by name," Hel pointed out. "But I can see that this is a Bonsai yggdrassil, for lack of a better term."

"I am calling it the name Ceiba!"

"Mictecacihuatl, why do you have a bonsai world tree?"

"Oh it is being simple!" the skeleton reassured him. "This is an experiment of controlled failure. See the fracture codes? I am, how you say, simulating a small problem to be finding out what if can be explained to the larger problem." She smiled broadly. "It even has being little semi-loopers hopping from branch to branch!"

"I... see." Hel sighed. "I suppose that could be written off as a legitimate expense."

"There is also the fact that it is cute," Mictecacihuatl pointed out. "The loopers are all of wearing little fezzes. That is the right word, is it?"

Hel shrugged. "Search me."

* * *

2.2

Gurren Lagann

(Dalxein)

This fused loop was not going well. The Gurren was already trashed before they could even fuse up, Lagann tossed halfway across the planet with Simon still inside it, and Kamina was honestly not sure if his left arm was broken or dislocated, but it was hanging painfully limp and bloody at his side. This was shaping up to be another crashed loop already...

Then, in a flash of light, a massive sword speared into the ground in front of him. It gleamed with ethereal light from the many branched prongs along the blade. Attached was a note.

"Go nuts, bro. -Susanoo"

With a grin, he grabbed the hilt of the Ten-Span Sword with his working hand and charged.

* * *

"I'm not sure it was such a good idea to give him a copy of your sword. Even a tenth of its actual power could be dangerous." Epona stated as she worked away trying to stabilize the loop.

"Uhh... Copy?" Susanoo asked.

The sound of typing abruptly stopped. With a slow, deliberate motion, the lower-class admin turned to glare at her boss. "You didn't."

"Didn't what?"

She was fuming, now. "You did not just give your actual sword, a divine, administrator-level weapon to one of the most chaotic if not functionally insane loopers in the system! This is like handing the Hulk the actual Admin Thor's Mjolnir! You have no idea how bad this is do you!?" By this time she was raging in his face as he leaned back desperately trying to not make the horse goddess any angrier.

"I'll replace it with a 1/20 power copy between loops, okay?" He tried, hoping it would appease her wrath.

She backed away, smoothing her ruffled mane back into a proper office bun. "If he crashes either loop with that thing before then, I'm going to get Ammy to lock you in the sun again."

As she went back to her terminal to assess the damage, Susanoo couldn't help but whimper and hope his faith in his favorite looper was well-founded.

* * *

2.3

Valdemar

(yannoshka)

Young Vaniyel Ashkevron, heir to his father's hold of Forst Reach, woke from a night of restful sleep, and then Van Awoke to the loop.

"Huh, Human body. Been a few loops since I got to experience it last." He mused idly, while waiting for the loop memories to kick in. Yfandes just snorted on the other side of their mental bond.

"Hah. A few dozen loops, and you act as if it were eternity. It's been a few hundred since I last was human, and you don't hear me complaining." The companion bantered.

The memories came soon after, and from what he could gather, it seemed to be basic run of his life, from the beginning of the day Jervis broke his arm. Yep, definitely skipping that part.

And then another mental channel enfold within his mind. Good, that meant Lendel just awoke as well. Loops without his beloved tended to be a bit depressing, since there was the oh so alluring facsimile around.

"Hey Van! Seems like we have a variant loop here." Stefen's mind voice cheerfully greeted him. "Same life story, I just got born a few decades early." The bubbly bard continued.

"Stef! Hah, this gives me an idea!" Van cheered.

"Oh?"

"Yep! What say you lover that we introduce Valdemar to Rock 'n' Roll? A fellow looper from another verse helped me adapt my amp so it can run on ambient magic."

"Dibs on being Freddy Mercury archetype!"

* * *

2.4

Admin Shenanigans

(Krisoverstreet, Indalecio)

"Are you trying on purpose to get yourself kicked out of Heaven," Skuld asked in exasperation, "again?"

Susanoo sat at his console, turned in his chair to face a trio of very unhappy gods. Skuld, of course, was Yggdrasil's chief debugger and, therefore, one of the leaders of the repair attempts that included the Infinite Loops. Next to her stood Tyr One-Hand, Yggdrasil's chief admin. And next to him stood Susanoo's sister, the usually silent Amaterasu, glowing eyes staring at him with deep disappointment.

When his bosses brought Amaterasu in for one of their little discussions, Susanoo knew it was serious.

"Look, honest," he said, glancing at the three of them, "this time it really, honestly, is NOT my FAULT!"

"We agreed that your little project would remain read-only indefinitely," Skuld pressed. "Let me go over the reasons.

"First, you created an embryonic god. Her baseline is that she rewrites her local multiverse on a subconscious level. She is on the absolute cusp of Ascension... if she hasn't done so already." Skuld looked around. "You haven't had any unscheduled visitors lately, have you?"

"Look," Susanoo said, "Suzumiya is in control of her abilities on a subconscious level. She does nothing which would actively jeopardize her reality. Rewrite, yes; destroy, no. In fact she activated a subset of herself to arrange for a divergent timeline in order to preserve her baseline world from collapse."

"Yes," Skuld nodded. "Listed here under 'multiple divergent and convergent timelines.' Moving on. Second: significant use of, and reliance upon, time travel for the continuation of the baseline world."

"Predestination paradox protection," Susanoo countered. "With the exception of the presence of two time travelers, all time travel is done solely because it had already been done. Ouroberos patch, job's a good'un."

"Third," Skuld persisted, "multiple lesser reality-altering beings."

"The data entities are emergent and generally static. They're generally incapable of comprehending the higher levels. They're safe."

"Fourth. Extended time loop running in baseline universe."

"That's a bum rap and you know it. It's impossible to terminate a major Loop while within a local Loop. Nesting doll protection law."

"And finally, the aforementioned divergent and convergent timelines. Granted that all of these factors are category 2 or lower, the fact that they're all in the same universe- AND the fact that that universe, being one of your personal hobby pieces of chaos and disruption, has no resources required for current repairs on Yggdrasil, makes the whole universe a prime read-only candidate." Skuld waved her clipboard at the storm god. "We discussed this. You agreed. You signed the forms yourself. In triplicate. No carbons. And yet," she pointed to his console, "the Suzumiya universe is reading as an active Loop!"

"And what I'm trying to tell you is," Susanoo said, "I didn't activate it. It activated ITSELF."

That shut Skuld up.

Amaterasu gently pushed Susanoo away from his console and keyed up the relevant readout.

UNIVERSE: SN-NT-2002-PRIME

STATUS: LOOP PROTOCOL ACTIVE (variable 2 or 6 years duration w/Ouroberos Loop enclosed)

LOOP CONDITION: STABLE

And then the font changed to rainbow colors for the next readout:

ADMIN: YASUMI WATAHASHI (SUSANOO, SUPERVISOR)

ANCHOR: KYON

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: HARUHI SUZUMIYA

Amaterasu pointed at the readout, and then walked away, rubbing her temples.

The other three gods groaned.

"Looks like Epona's going to get a promotion," Skuld said. "You're going to have to give up admin duties on the Zelda Loops. From now on your full time job is making sure that this," she jabbed a finger at the screen, "doesn't break anything else."

Susanoo shrugged. A chaos god knows to be philosophical when his own chaos bites him in the butt.

"And I'll help!" Everyone turned around see a teenage girl in a sailor fuku. She was wearing a red armband that read, 'Junior Admin'.

* * *

In the SOS Dan club room in North High, Haruhi Suzumiya slumped in her seat unconscious, only to wake again five seconds later.

"Ow. What just happened?" she asked as she rubbed her head.

* * *

2.5

Admin Shenanigans

(Masterweaver)

"...so, you too huh?"

Madoka shrugged. "Well, at least I knew what I was doing. You kind of... well, you did this whole thing on accident." She shook her head. "I still don't know how you did that..."

"Um." Haruhi chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, the admins were really on my case... apparently they kept trying to remove my anchor status but I kept turning it on and... yeah. On the plus side, though, after they modify my code I can put my universe back online!"

"Wait. They can do that?"

The school girl tossed a small globe from one hand to the other. "So long as they have this, yeah. I've agreed to have my Awake status hardcoded shut, so I can't accidentally start looping, and then they just plug it back in and... yeah. It's neat."

"Huh..." Madoka glanced at her bow. "I... I need to think on this."

* * *

2.6

Haruhi Suzumiya

(KrisOverstreet)

Most of the Loopers I've met can't remember their first Loop with any clarity. I don't mean remembering their pre-Loop baseline. I mean, most people don't have a clear memory of the first time they realized they were repeating the same bit of their life over again. That first Loop tends to blur together with memories of other early Loops when the Loopers experimented, went wild, went insane, and pulled themselves back to something that could pass for sanity in a good light.

But I will always remember my first Loop.

A large part of it is because I'd experienced Looping before, in that endless summer, even though my memories didn't accumulate there except as the occasional extreme attack of déjà vu. My mind was prepared for the possibility. Living with Haruhi's insanity had prepared my mind for nearly anything.

So when I woke up and realized I was in my own past, without actually traveling through time, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my chance to live things over again.

And the very first thing I wanted to do set the tone for the rest of that Loop.

I stood up on the first day of class and introduced myself, giving my name and my former middle school.

"My friends call me Kyon, though I wish they wouldn't. I am an absolutely normal and ordinary human being. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers, come see me. That is all!"

As I sat down I looked at the face of the girl seated behind me. I shall treasure the pure shock and surprise in that face for as long as I shall live, and it lasted a good five seconds. Then she smiled, looking at me as if to inform me that she couldn't wait for the first opportunity to get even with me.

"Oh God," I heard Taniguchi mutter, "there's two of them."

An ordinary person is of course no match for Haruhi Suzumiya, much less a rival. But a Looper? That's a different story.

* * *

2.7

Haruhi Suzumiya

(Filraen)

My sister's devilish wake-up signaled I was living the first day of High School again. I wonder how other loopers don't get mad at so constant repetition. Or probably they eventually get mad, seeing how bad Yuki got after the endless August all those summers ago. After a quick shower and a breakfast with mom I checked my phone for any new messages from unknown numbers.

Kyon, SOS Brigade meeting at the clubroom at lunch

YUKI.N Awake

Nothing different seems to change this time. I'd be arriving at North High by the end of the week.

Please mail me if there's a club meeting today. Mikuru.

I'll be around the club meeting today. Mikuru.

All from unknown numbers, except the second which came from a private number. I was already looking forward to this loop.

* * *

I'm not sure if I should be relieved or sad that Haruhi wasn't wearing a ponytail today. Anyway, I give my usual speech to introduce myself to my classmates.

"Everybody calls me Kyon, even my own sister, and I'm the SOS Brigade's own Anchor in this world." My smirk matched Haruhi thousand-watt smile as Taniguchi complained now they were two of them.

* * *

"So, first round of business: Yuki, Mikuru, Mikuru, you're now unlocked and unreadable."

The twin smiles from both older and younger Mikuru Asahina complemented Yuki's nod.

"Thanks, Haruhi-chan." The elder Mikuru stood up from her seat and delivered an envelope to Kyon.

"With these my bosses won't send another time traveler," the adult said to Kyon and Haruhi, and then directed to her younger self. "Sorry."

"I know," the younger Mikuru just nodded, looking a bit dejected. It hurt a little she was out of information every loop but she knew it was necessary and at least now her future self was open on leaving her in the blank.

* * *

I always wonder if the way both Mikurus hug themselves before the older leaves is awkward. It's probably the ultimate test of "being at peace with yourself" with actually being a version of yourself from years before and after.

"Kyon, quit daydreaming, or I'll make you pay penalty for the next dozen Loops!"

Oh, sorry Haruhi. Were you saying?

"Did you get a text from Koizumi?"

Yes, I did. He's looping too and will try to meet with us after classes at the cafe. Though I don't know why you asked me, you probably mailed him just after Awakening today.

"Good to see you already know too. Everyone, have five plans to do this loop: four considering a one year long range and three for a possible five-year long loop."

Those sum more than five plans! Though I don't have time to complain as the end lunch break bell rings.

"Ok, everyone dismissed!"

* * *

The five members of the SOS Brigade sat at their usual cafe.

"Yuki, privacy field."

The short haired girl nodded once "Done."

Haruhi face palmed. "Yuki, give more emotion. Make your powers showier, that is looks like the "dumb magic" Kyon says it is!"

Yuki's eyes rose from the book she was reading and looked directly to Haruhi "Making a privacy field more visible reduces it effectiveness."

"Fine, fine." Haruhi pouted for a moment before returning her usual enthusiasm. "Anyway, Loop call: Koizumi?"

"I regret I have nothing to say, "Koizumi shrugged."From my point of view, yesterday I was in a club meeting as a North High Student."

"Mikuru?"

"Nothing either, Haruhi."

"Yuki?"

"No."

"Better you have something good, Kyon. Any loop without us?"

Stopping drinking his milk Kyon answered "Actually two, the first one I was the only Awake and we tried to become a professional Rock Band. Apparently we were so popular and with your power went so out of control than during the Christmas concert it was raining Santas. And that's before the loop ended with the Valentine Day concert."

Haruhi winced a moment. "And the second?"

"It was... strange." Kyon blushed "I was a talking mini horse, a pony. Let me see..." Kyon seemed to look for something inside his jacket. "How to do this... here!" And Kyon produced a framed picture of a brown pony with an even darker brown mane and tail wearing a tie and the picture of an hourglass in his flank face hooving in a very Kyon-like manner. "Apparently I was replacing the local clockmaker, Time Turner."

Both Haruhi and Mikuru were stunned at the look of the picture, but Mikuru was the first to react and take it from Kyon's hands "So cute!"

Koizumi's face was of surprise, though. When he talked to Kyon his tone was so serious it calmed the mood of the whole table immediately "One question, did you actually have this picture taken in that loop?"

Kyon had to resist the urge to tilt his head "Yes, why?"

Koizumi didn't have chance to answer because Haruhi anticipated him standing from her place at the table and pointing an accusatory finger to Kyon "How did you carry this picture from that loop to here?"

Kyon raised his eyebrows as he just had realized what he had done. "Oh, that. The anchor there, a unicorn called Twilight Sparkle taught me how to make what they call a subspace pocket. According to her whatever is inside it by the end of a loop I carry with me to the next one."

"All right. Anybody against to have Kyon teach us this trick a plan for this loop?" Waiting a moment for anybody to raise an objection, something which didn't happen, Haruhi cheerfully declared. "Everybody in favor, nobody against, motion passed!" She knew everyone would want the chance of learning know carry things between loops. "Now let's see your plans I asked..."

* * *

2.8

Naruto

(Oraclemask)

Okay, as far as teams went, Naruto had expected worse.

Considering he was replacing Kakashi yet again - and by now Naruto even felt a little sorry for some of the things they'd done to the man, because Kakashi's baseline life was already a large pile of fuck – Naruto had been fervently praying that he got some different, decent people on Team Seven this time.

What Naruto had to work with this time was some kid with spiky blue hair, some guy with Sasuke's duck-butt hairstyle except in white, and another pinkette - this one wielding an over-sized hammer.

"Right, so let's introduce ourselves," Naruto said, waving a hand at them to go first.

"You go first, Bla - huh? Where did he go?" the pinkette said, staring at the empty space her new teammate used to be sitting in.

"YA-HOO! I'M BLACK STAR!"

All three of them looked at the source of the distant shout.

"I'M THE MAN THAT WILL SURPASS GOD!"

"How the hell did he get to the Hokage Mountain that fast without using a jutsu?" Naruto wondered.

"Black Star and 'normal physics' haven't been on speaking terms for years," said the white-haired kid in a long-suffering tone, "Basically, he's like you but a hundred times louder and has an ego the size of a small planet."

"Fine. You go next," Naruto said.

"Whatever. I'm Haseo Uchiha, and I want to kill the guy that replaced Itachi this loop," Haseo said, "Probably because Ovan's got some stupid plan in the works that involves me killing him again anyway. Either way's win-win for me."

"ALL OF YOU ARE LIKE ANTS DOWN THERE! WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE COMPARED TO ME, THE GREAT BLACK STAR!"

"Doesn't he know that we can't hear him up there?"

"No. Please just keep going," Haseo sighed.

"Alright, alright...I'm Amy Haru-rose," Amy said, "I like chasing after my darling Sonic! And using my hammer on anyone who gets in the way, of course."

The unholy glint in Amy's eye promised swift, hammer-y revenge on the first person to doubt her words. Naruto and Haseo kept their mouths wisely shut.

* * *

2.9

Bartender

(Crisis, KrisOverstreet)

No one was quite sure how Eden Hall and its owner/Anchor Sasakura Ryuu kept ending up in the massive fused Loops where numerous Anchors were in attendance, but there were no complaints whatsoever. Right now, those Anchors present were engaging in one of their favorite pastimes.

Embarrassing the heck out of each other.

"And here's 'Rapid Hooves' on a date with my friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy while they weren't Awake," Twilight grinned, showing a picture of an extremely nervous stallion being kissed on each cheek by both mares at the same time.

"It was weird," Ranma insisted. "They both decided they liked me and they were civil about it!"

"Power of friendship Ranma-san," Twilight kept grinning. "What did you think would happen when you saved a horde of endangered bunnies using superhero-grade feats?"

The original Anchor just buried his head in the table and moaned.

"That's nothing!" cheered one Monkey D. Luffy, Anchor of the piratical One Piece Loop. "Wanna see my pictures of Naruto when he looped in as one of my crew?"

Everyone's attention was riveted. Luffy's crew was famous/infamous across the Loops for the ridiculous adventures they had and the ludicrous battles they always ended up involved in. Luffy was one of the few loopers in the multiverse that had fought Bo-bobo and liked it.

But before Luffy could start, the door to the bar opened and everyone present immediately conceded the embarrassing photo contest.

Kyon, the Anchor who generally rode herd on Haruhi and her home Loop, had arrived.

Not that this would stop the stories from being told of course.

Luffy looked at the other Loopers, who had gone silent as soon as Kyon entered the room. "Hey, come on!" he shouted. "Everybody's gotta have some good photos, right?"

"Let it go, Luffy," Ranma said quietly. "Nobody here can beat Kyon for embarrassing pics, and we all know it."

"Oh really?" Luffy grinned. "Oh, this I've gotta see!"

Luffy was halfway across the room before he realized his left shoulder was still back at the barstool. Ranma kept the grip firm as he said, "Leave him alone."

The goofy Pirate King returned to the bar and asked, "Is it really that bad?"

"Well, in most of Kyon's Loops he's joined by this girl named Haruhi," Ranma said. "And nearly as often with the rest of his high school club, the SOS Brigade. One of these other members is named Mikuru Asahina. Cute as hell, busty, and as shy and adorable as a baby hedgehog. No offense, Sonic."

"No prob, bro! I was an adorable little cuss!"

Returning to his explanation, Ranma continued, "Anyway, Haruhi treats Mikuru as the club mascot. Dresses her up in sexy and revealing outfits- a bunny girl, a waitress, a maid, a sexy nurse, string bikinis... you get the idea? She's even been known to grope the poor girl a time or three. Haruhi apparently likes 'em busty."

"Okay. What does this have to do with Kyon?" Luffy asked.

"I told you all that so you might understand what I mean when I say this." Ranma took a deep breath. His blue eyes bored into Luffy's dark ones as he said, solemnly, slowly, clearly, "Haruhi enjoys the Eiken Loop."

Luffy's eyes were naturally wide, and his stretching powers meant than when they went wide, they REALLY went wide.

"Get the picture now?" Ranma asked.

"Yeah." Luffy turned to the bar and picked up his drink, glancing over at the table where Kyon sat between sips. "Poor guy," he said, and repeated it quite a lot over the next three drinks.

* * *

2.10

Harry Potter

(Crisis)

Harry Potter was once again in the office of Albus Dumbledore, an event not at all uncommon in his Loops. The difference was... Dumbledore was Awake.

Harry had... bad memories of trying to convince the aging headmaster of the nature of the Loops early on. Memories of things he hadn't quite forgiven Dumbledore for even after all this time. Sure, he'd reconciled with the old man a few times. Once or twice he'd even convinced the headmaster of the trauma other versions of himself had inflicted on Harry and had gotten a heartfelt apology.

But it had never stuck. It had been back to Unawake Dumbledores who were hit-or-miss in regards to if they were secretly evil overlords, incompetent idiots, well-meaning goofs, more-or-less decent manipulators who thought they had an omniscient morality license or genuinely good and intelligent wizards who have nonetheless screwed up somewhere. It was maddening. He wanted to forgive Dumbledore, to tell him that the good had outweighed the bad over the course of the Loops, but there was no version of the man who made such forgiveness mean anything to Harry.

In the end, he'd held on to the hurt and bitterness just to keep from going even more insane.

But here was a version of Dumbledore who could remember reconciliation, and Harry had no idea if he even deserved the chance. He'd been wary. Too many times he had been hurt to risk a permanent, and possibly eternal, enmity with the headmaster.

"I understand I owe you a rather thorough apology," Dumbledore began. "When I first began 'looping' as it were, I was not too much unlike whatever versions of myself earned your enmity. I was determined to see the prophecy through to its end, and very much overly confident that I, and I alone, knew what was best. I am thankful to say that you thwarted my efforts at every turn. And often in ways I can now admit were rather amusing."

"You..." Harry started, not entirely sure how he was reacting.

"Please allow me to finish, Harry," Dumbledore placated. "Then you may pass whatever judgment you deem fit."

Harry kept his silence, and waited.

"It all came to a head, I'm afraid, when a rather fascinating muggle scientist whisked you away from the Dursleys and adopted you. I was growing very much frustrated with my inability to set you on the path to fulfilling the prophecy, and I did something quite ill-advised and attempted to use my magic to force events to go how I wished them to."

Harry winced. That sounded like Setsuna Syndrome, a term Usagi had coined way back when the Loops were new and she sometimes had to deal with an Unawake Setsuna Meiou, aka Sailor Pluto. Setsuna was a force who, some Loops, kept setting herself at odds with the blonde Anchor whenever she derailed the timeline with Loop knowledge or abilities. Setsuna Syndrome was attributed to those who were overly dedicated to the preservation of baseline events to the point of obsession, often Unawake but still Loop Aware entities, believing that even small deviations carried unthinkable consequences. It was something most loopers tended to get over eventually, but some overcompensated and risked diving towards Sakura Syndrome instead, the state of a looper believing that no action they undertook, no matter how vile or depraved, carried any consequences due to the nature of the Loops.

"Fortunately, as I would come to learn," Dumbledore continued, "this 'Dr. Light' managed to best me with nothing more than a few wise precautions he had taken and then proceeded to raise you into a fine young man despite my protests. Not only that, but his actions during that particular Loop came to show me what it really meant to work for the greater good. He did everything in his power to do right by as many as possible, and above all, he sought that none would suffer in his quest to do right that did not bring it upon themselves with their own actions. He and his did more to aid the worlds of both muggles and wizards in just over a decade than I and mine have managed to accomplish in my entire lifetime. Any of them. It was a humbling experience."

Harry's eyes widened. "You were Awake for that?!"

"That is the term you use, is it not?" Dumbledore asked rhetorically. "In fact, I was. And it was the most enlightening series of events I could have ever hoped for. I was humbled by a man who not only did not lord his victory over me like many would, he was willing to forgive my folly and even work with me towards a future brighter than I ever dared hope possible."

"Yeah," Harry admitted. The man had developed countermeasures against the dementors more effective than anything Harry had possessed prior to at least triple digits in the Loops. In under a month and with no prior understanding of the creatures. "Though the Wily guy they brought with them was a handful."

"Indeed. I was quite entertained by how he consistently defeated Mr. Riddle whenever they clashed. Speaking of which, 'Moldyshorts' Harry?" Dumbledore chuckled. "While I am pleased that you still do not fear Tom's chosen name, that is rather childish."

"I'm technically older than humanity by now," Harry groused. "I'm allowed to be childish on occasion."

"Oh, I understand the appeal," Dumbledore smiled. "Did you know that in my battle with Grindlewald, which I have yet to repeat, the two of us; adult wizards at the height of our power and influence, dueling to the death; stood there on the battlefield calling each other things like 'dung-head' in between lethal spells? I can assure you that has never been mentioned in the history books. Such enmity for one who wishes you dead is only human. I am rather more concerned that your grudge against Professor Snape does not seem to have abated."

Harry took a deep breath. "Disregarding the fact that I tend to bear the brunt of his unresolved rivalry with my father anew when a Loop restarts, 'professor' Snape is often a much poorer teacher than a potion master," Harry informed the looping headmaster, mentally disregarding those rare Loops where a variant Snape was in fact quite competent. Like the one where he acted like the kind of high school chemistry teacher who taught his students how to make stink bombs, and ended up Fred and George's absolute favorite member of the Hogwarts faculty. All those variants served to do was drive home how petty and uncaring the baseline Snape tended to be. "By several degrees of magnitude."

"Well," Dumbledore allowed, "I suppose that is only to be expected. As sensible as the man can be in some matters, I fear he is as bad as any other magic user in most. Now, to the matter of Delores Umbridge..."

"Hey," Harry's eyes narrowed dangerously, "I make no apologies for what happens to that woman after the things she tries most every Loop. So drop it right now."

"I was actually going to ask if you took pictures," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with amusement.

Harry gaped for a second before acknowledging the zinger. New looper or no, Dumbledore still had it. "Which volume?"

"How many do you have?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

Harry just grinned. He could work with this.

* * *

2.10

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

(Starfata)

Sally Jackson, having disposed of her first husband with Medusa's head, was just cleaning their small apartment. Percy might not be coming home again this loop, but she was expecting visitors, and it was bad enough that Gabe's statue was there without putting up with his mess as well.

Well, technically only one visitor. She'd just tossed the last of the beer cans when he arrived.

"Hello Poseidon." She greeted, stealing a quick glance at her former lover's face. The sea god seemed perturbed.

"Sally." He began, before struggling for words.

She got herself a drink while she waited for him to find them, letting him flounder in the awkwardness.

"Was Percy always a girl?" Poseidon blurted out in a rush.

Sally took a casual sip of her water. "No."

"Then..." Startled by her attitude, the earth shaker lost his words again.

This time, Sally took pity on him. "It's a curse. Fresh water for a boy, sea water got a girl." She explained. Percy had gotten the idea from Nerima, although he kept changing which gender was caused by which form of water. 'The sea is change' indeed. "As far as we know, there's no cure." Except for being a looper and removing the curse you applied to yourself for laughs, but that didn't count.

Poseidon frowned. "So our son..."

"Is also our daughter. Two for one special." Sally quipped.

Poseidon scowled at her briefly, but the mortal woman only rolled her eyes. "Percy doesn't mind- she probably has too much fun with it to be honest. She likes being able to go onto the girls locker rooms, and loves men's jeans. I'd be more worried about that Camp of his, since they won't keep them right in Percy's sex."

The god simply stared at her. Percy was right, this was a funny prank.

* * *

2.1: Fezzes are cool.

2.2: Susanoo and Kamina are cut from the same cloth. Fear for the multiverse.

2.3: Rock on!

2.4: Haruhi didn't cross the line into Ascension so much as stick a toe across and then yank it back when someone looked. Haruhi's subconscious is aware that there are other worlds, there are repeating time loops, and there is fun to be had there; therefore, Haruhi has decided, again subconsciously, to do what is required to join the fun, without doing anything that would cancel out said fun. – KrisOverstreet

2.5: Kyon was a Looper before it was cool.

2.6: Baseline time travel gets weird in the Loops.

2.7: New team members for Team Seven = Shenanigans.

2.8: All is fair in blackmail and war.

2.9: Dumbledore, don't screw up your n+1 chance.

2.10: When loopers get bored, they do some weird stuff.


End file.
